Presented by:Prabhat kumar

A power station ( generating station, power plant or powerhouse) is industrial facility for the generation of electric power. A thermal power station is a power plant in which the prime mover is steam driven. Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was heated; this is known as a Rankine cycle.

Power plants burning coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are often called thermal power plants.
Thermal power plants contribute maximum to the g e n e r a t i o n o f P o w e r f o r a n c o u n t r y. I n I n d i a more then 60% of power plants is thermal power plant .

 Steam power plant basically

operates on the RANKINE cycle. Coal is burnt in a boiler, which converts water into steam. The steam is expanded in a turbine, which produces mechanical power driving the alternator coupled to the turbine. The steam after expansion in prime mover is usually condensed in a condenser to be fed into the boiler again. In practice, however, a large no. of modifications and improvements have been made so as to affect economy and improve the thermal efficiency of the plant

 The whole arrangement is categorised into following

parts: 1. Coal and ash handling arrangement. 2. Steam generating plant 3. Steam turbine 3. Condenser. 4. Electrical equipment. 5. Feed water. 6. Cooling arrangement.

The coal is transported to the power station by road or rail and is stored in the coal storage plant. Storage of coal is primarily a matter of protection against coal strikes, failure of transportation system and general coal shortages. From the coal storage plant, coal is delivered to the coal handling plant where it is pulverised (i.e., crushed into small pieces) in order to increase its surface exposure, thus promoting rapid combustion without using large quantity of excess air. The pulverised coal is fed to the boiler by belt conveyors.

 Boiler :-Boiler is an enclosed vessel in which water is heated and circulated until the
water is turned in to steam at the required pressure. Coal is burned inside the combustion chamber of boiler. .The internal operation of boiler can be understood from the fig below.

There are further two types of boiler :1. water tube boiler 2. fire tube boiler

 Superheater :- Superheater is a component of a steam-generating unit in which steam,

after it has left the boiler drum, is heated above its saturation temperature. The amount of superheat added to the steam is influenced by the location, arrangement, and amount of superheater surface installed, as well as the rating of the boiler.

Economiser:-It is a device which heats the feed water on its way to boiler by deriving heat
from the flue gases. This results in raising boiler efficiency, saving in fuel and reduced stresses in the boiler due to higher temperature of feed water. An economiser consists of a large number of closely spaced parallel steel tubes connected by headers of drums. The feed water flows through these tubes and the flue gases flow outside.

Air preheater:-An air preheater increases the temperature of the air supplied
for the coal burning by deriving heat from flue gases. Air is drawn from the atmosphere by a forced draught fan and is passed through air preheater before supplying to the boiler furnace.

Steam turbine:-The dry and superheated steam from the superheater is fed
to the steam turbine through main valve. The heat energy of steam when passing over the blades of turbine is converted into mechanical energy. After giving heat energy to the turbine, the steam is exhausted to the condenser which condenses the exhausted steam by means of cold water circulation.

A condenser is a device which condenses the steam at the exhaust of turbine. It serves 2 important functions:
a) Firstly it creates a very low pressure at the exhaust of the turbine, thus

permitting expansion of steam in the prime mover. This helps in converting the heat energy of steam into mechanical energy in the prime mover.
b)

Secondly, the condensed steam can be used to feed water to the boiler. Jet condenser. Surface condenser.

There are 2 types of condensers:

1) 2)

Feed water:-The condensate from the condenser is used as feed water

to the boiler. Some water may be lost in the cycle which is suitably made up from external source. The feed water on its way to the boiler is heated by water heaters and economiser. This helps in raising the overall efficiency of the plant.

In order to improve the efficiency of the plant, the steam exhausted from the turbine is condensed by means of a condenser. Water is drawn from a natural source of supply such as a river, canal or lake and is circulated through the condenser. The circulating water takes up the heat of the exhausted steam and itself becomes hot. This hot water coming out from the condenser is discharged at a suitable location down the river. In case the availability of water from the source of supply is not assured throughout the year, cooling towers are used. During the scarcity of water in the river, hot water from the condenser is passed on to the cooling towers where it is cooled. The cold water from the cooling tower is reused in the condenser.

 Different electrical equipments used in power plant:

1)

Alternator :.

2)

Transformer:

3)

switchgear:

1. Cooling tower 2. Cooling water pump 3. Transmission line (3-phase) 4. Unit transformer (3-phase) 5. Electric generator (3-phase) 6. Low pressure turbine 7. Boiler feed pump 8. Condensor 9. Intermediate pressure turbine

10. Steam governor valve 11. High pressure turbine 12. Deaerator 13. Feed heater 14. Coal conveyor 15. Coal hopper 16. Pulverised fuel mill 17. Boiler drum 18. Ash hopper

19. Superheater 20. Forced draught fan 21. Reheater 22. Air intake 23. Economiser 24. Air preheater 25. Precipitator 26. Induced draught fan 27. Chimney Stack

The overall efficiency of a steam power station is quite low (about 29%) mainly due to 2 reasons. Firstly, a huge amount of heat is lost in the condenser and secondly heat losses occur at various stages of the plant.
THERMAL EFFICIENCY:

(thermal) =

OVERALL EFFICIENCY:

(overall) =

 Fuel used is cheaper. Cheaper in initial cost in comparison with other power plants .Its

cost varies from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 per KW of installed capacity.

Cheaper in production cost . These plants can be located near the load Centre. Able to respond to rapidly changing loads without difficulty. Steam engines and turbines can work under 25% of overload

continuously.

High maintenance and operating cost. Pollution of atmosphere due to fumes and residues from pulverized fuels.

Requirement of water in huge quantity. Handling of coal and disposal of ash is quite difficult. Troubles from smoke and heat from the plant. With the increase in the operating temperature and pressure , the plant cost

increases.
Requires long time for erection and put into action.

 Nearness to the load centers

Supply of water
Availability of coal

Land requirement
Transportation facilities

Labour supplies:
Ash disposal